Blog - Agile2Success

20Jan 2020 by jerrye316@aol.com

Fixed Deadlines Make Us Work Efficiently

agile, best practices, Scrum, sprint, Uncategorized

The best way to get the most important tasks done within the shortest time is to have fixed deadlines, thus, framing our work within a time box. In our daily lives, we experience fixed deadlines. Some examples are: Catching an airplaneCelebrating a holiday (Christmas, birthday, etc)Participating in a wedding ceremonyCompleting weekend chores from our "to-do" list (weekend ends Sunday night)Winning a sports game against an opponent in the regulation time (game over when time clock reaches zero) In all of these, we have to be ready within the appointed time. Otherwise, we suffer potential and costly consequences such as missing your plane, or even worse, your wedding! Fix deadlines force us to be more efficient. Some reasons are: We prioritize. We identify the tasks that must be done and work…

14Jan 2020 by jerrye316@aol.com

The Agile Paradox

agile, Agile Manifesto

"Since we are Agile, we choose not to be really Agile." This the Agile Paradox. Many organizations claim to have adopted Agile Software Development. But most organizations will then tell you that they are not really Agile. They have decided to pick and choose those things from Agile which they want to adopt and ignore the others. Although some argue that they are simply "adapting to their environment", it may be that they are not getting the full benefit from a commitment to be more Agile. Agile is more than simply "saying you are Agile". Agile Software Development originated as a mindset or philosophy guided by the values and principles in the Agile Manifesto. In summary, these encompass various approaches where solutions evolve in short increments through self empowering, motivated,…

09Jul 2018 by jerrye316@aol.com

Healthy Agility Requires Finding Your Sustainable Pace

agile, Agile Manifesto, Scrum, sprint

Agility involves delivering and adapting in short iterations. In Scrum the iterations are called "sprints." Sprints are generally scheduled right after each other without much or any recovery time. In races, sprints imply exhausting every bit of energy to be first at the finish line. This raises an often asked question "Why don't Scrum team members get burned out?" The answer to healthy agility is to value "Sustainable Pace Over Faster Sprinting." Think about the long distance competitive swimmer. The swimmer must swim as fast as possible each lap (the sprint). But the goal is to complete all laps. The swimmer must train to get better at swimming each lap quickly while still have enough energy to finish the race. The same is true of working in iterations to make it…

18Dec 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

Technical Health For the New Year

agile, Agile testing, Technical debt, Technical health

This is from an earlier blog. I received several positive reviews so I thought I would share again as I have new followers and since we are about to begin a new year. Technical health is a better term than technical debt when describing the principle of keeping software "clean". Most of us care and understand the consequences of not maintaining good personal health. However, many of us today have run up large debt from school loans, home mortgages, auto loans, etc. Countries generally have huge national debts which continue to explode. It has become an accepted and normal part of life. So why should management care about preventing"technical debt" from growing bigger? It becomes easier to explain that it is essential to maintain our "technical health." One student suggested calling…

18Oct 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

Cultivating Agile: WIP As A Mindset

agile, best practices, Kanban, Predictive Agility, Scrum

Limiting work in progress (WIP) is a mindset shift! Limiting WIP has many benefits. What is your WIP mindset? The blog Do A Few Things Insanely Great emphasizes that we can actually "do more with less". The idea is that we can increase our flow rates, decrease wait times, and eliminate bottlenecks when we limit WIP. This leads to increased productivity, improved team morale, more visibility into ongoing work, and better metrics on velocity and project progress. There is more personal satisfaction in seeing things actually completed rather than having a full plate of ongoing work. Limiting WIP also makes us identify and focus on those tasks which have the highest value since we can only work on a few things at a time. If we can only do a few things,…

06Sep 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

Daily Stand-up Meetings: Valuable or Waste Of Time

agile, Daily Stand-up, Scrum

"Agile, is that where you have those daily stand around meetings?" Daily stand-up meetings are often misunderstood and misrepresented. In most cases, this is due to team members lacking an understanding of its real purpose. Let's explore ... What is a daily stand-up? The Scrum Guide proposes a 15-minute time boxed event called the Daily Scrum where the Development Team meets "to synchronize activities and create a plan for the next 24 hours." The guide states, "This is a key inspect and adapt meeting." Since the meeting is short in duration, it is often held in a convenient and nearby informal setting with members standing. A principle from the Agile Manifesto states that the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. The daily stand-up brings…

24Jul 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

Retrospective on Retrospectives: Start with “Thank you’s”

agile, Retrospective, Scrum

Retrospective meetings are an opportunity to improve how your teams work. Don't miss out on this opportunity. Retrospectives can be hard to facilitate with experienced teams. The perception is there is little left to improve, "we already know how to work together, so let's get back to doing the work". Think of the retrospective as if it is a "half time" during a basketball game. Even professional and experienced teams regroup to talk about how they can play the current game better. Scrum teams can likewise talk about how to improve from the past and future sprints. The beginning of the retrospective meeting is critical for setting the tone. There should always be the feeling of safety and constructive discussion. Everyone should feel comfortable and non-threatened to speak. The facilitator, whether…

14Jun 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

The Executive’s Project Dashboard – Red Light, Green Light

agile, Agile Manifesto, Predictive Agility

Executives want to view overall project status with a quick glance. Project managers often create the stop light dashboard as a tool to visually convey this information. How do we measure progress in Agile projects? According to one of the twelve principles from the Agile Manifesto, working software is the primary measure of progress. Revising the dashboard to reflect actual rather than planned progress may give a better indicator of project progress. The dashboard consists of multiple stop lights to display status. Each stop light reflects the status for a feature or planned activity of the project. The light is green if the status is "on track", is yellow if the status is "at risk" with minor issues, and is red if the status is "behind schedule or off track."…

22May 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

Best Practice Is Not To Use The Word “Best”

agile, best practices, Scrum

How many times have we heard a software consultant or tool vendor say the phrase "best practice?" In this context, best practice is mostly marketing lingo to get us to use their services or tools. It is selling by guilt. After all, if it's the best, we would be a fool not to buy it! If it is the best, then it must be worth the high price the vendor is charging. Or is it? Let's analyze the word "best." First, I am reminded of a cartoon about Father's Day. The young son is looking for a gift and sees a rack of several T-shirts with the words "Best Dad Ever." The son looks up at the mom and says "If a dad is the best, shouldn't there only be one of these…

15May 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com

How Fixing Defects Is Like Finding Your Lost Car Keys

agile, Agile testing, Kanban, Scrum, sprint

The next time your manager asks for an estimate for fixing software defects, say "I'll get right on it, as soon as I can find my lost car keys." Estimating the time to find and fix a defect can be difficult. It can be a short time, a very long time, or maybe even never. So how do we respond when asked to forecast in a Scrum sprint planning meeting which defects we can fix in the upcoming sprint? One recommendation is to consider switching from Scrum to Kanban for later phases of software maintenance when defect fixing and creating estimates are difficult. Kanban provides transparency into the backlog and the work flow as defects are fixed without having to forecast the work for an upcoming time boxed sprint. It is always best not to create…